The When You're Ready Project is a community for survivors of sexual violence to share their stories and have their voices heard, finding strength in one another. When you're ready to share your story, we'll be here.

Samantha McCoy

My name is Samantha and I am a survivor of rape.

My assault happened by someone I thought was a person I could trust. We had been childhood friends and he was the pastor’s son at the church I grew up in. He was a police officer in the town I was attending college.

I went through the worst experience of my life and it took many, many things from me. It took my happiness for over a year, I lost my salaried job, I lost my apartment, I wasn’t able to attend classes regularly, I didn’t want to leave bed… everything reminded me of what happened and I feared running into him or his friends. I made the decision to move across the country to start over.

Although he took so much from me and two years of my life are gone that were wasted on trying to heal from the damages, he did not take my voice. I now dedicate my time to educating others on sexual assault and being a voice for the survivors who cannot speak out on their experience. I work at a local domestic violence shelter and also work as a mental health therapist. I graduate in May with my Master’s in Social Work and I am planning on pursuing law school to make changes in the policies and laws surrounding sexual assault survivors. I speak at events and have even spoken at events to educate police officers in my new state. I am also a peer educator at my new university and educate on healthy relationships, sexual assault awareness and prevention, as well as bystander intervention.

I could have very well let that evil man take everything I had and I almost gave him all of my power. But, I have found strength and healing through speaking out and helping others who have gone through this and who feel as though they aren’t being heard. I will not let him dictate my future or my success. I will never let him have control over me again and I will succeed regardless of what he tried to do. My goal is to help other survivors reach that point and reclaim their lives. My voice is what has pushed me through and what has kept me alive and I am so very thankful for my new life that I created.